Topic: Spellcasting cost

[luzbel]

how much do you charge for spells to your players? healing, identify.....
Im still lost with money level in rmu. Too used to d&d pricess I guess.

[MisterK]

I don't.

Or rather, if the situation warrants it, I don't make them pay in coins. I make them pay in favours, services, oaths of fealty, or similar.

I usually handle money in a very abstract way in my campaigns. The characters are not 'adventurers in search of fortune', they have the means to support themselves in a lifestyle appropriate to their station. In all but one campaign, at least one of the characters was from a *very* wealthy family (we are talking Sel-Kai merchant lord or Rhakhaan Duke level of wealth and influence), so money is usually not a concern.

But in many cases, money is also useless - either useless because those you want to deal with do not use it for exchanges, or useless because those you want to deal with already have more than they could ever need. But favours or services ? That's an all-time favourite for a good reason: it's universal, the characters can always pay (they might not *want* to, but they can), and it's something you can actually use contextually - it makes the NPCs needs, choices and expectations matter.

If money really is the thing that can make the deal, I have them pay and just say something along the lines of "this is going to make a dent in your finances, and your father will likely have something to say about it". Basically, it means "it costs money, but the real cost for you will be in another coin".

[Spectre771]

I don't.

Or rather, if the situation warrants it, I don't make them pay in coins. I make them pay in favours, services, oaths of fealty, or similar.

Ditto.  Or more accurately... rarely.  Barter, reciprocal services, side quests, rarely coins but still always gladly accepted by my vendors.  Often, the players will give one of the magic items in exchange for ID-ing whatever else they have.

[nash]

If you want a price I would suggest something in the realm of 1gp per spell level squared; alternatively be 1gp * spell level * caster level.   

Obviously casters don't really know the the level of spell so discretely; or for that matter their own level; so it's the starting price you can use a GM to start working from.   Spell casting has a risk factor with it; so as the others above have already suggested they probably aren't going to be posting a sign with spell rates.

But all good economists will tell you there is a price for everything.

[rdanhenry]

Obviously casters don't really know the the level of spell so discretely; or for that matter their own level; so it's the starting price you can use a GM to start working from.

The cost of a spell in PP is its level, so that's hardly difficult to work out, even if not known to begin with, just with a group of casters willing to put in the time and having some basic mathematics. As for character level, there are spells that determine just that (and spells to disguise that). Rolemaster has definitely always treated both spell and character level as meaningful within the game universe.

Which is not to say that spell-casters will want to let that information become widely known.

[pastaav]

The big question is if there are people on the current location who earn their living by waiting for an adventurer to maybe come by. In real life, there are plenty of computer things I know how to do, but that does not mean I will help random persons who have a computer problem. I already have a good enough income, and my regular work will suffer if I I am tired after doing things in my spare time. I make sure the same applies to my game world. The village mage might know the spell, but why should he take a break from his important book-writing that will earn him plenty later just because some random adventurers need assistance?

Larger cities will have people who earn their living by spell casting. The actual price they charge depends on how often their services are called. Determine their desired salary each month and divide by the average number of customers to decide the price. Higher-level spells mean they might lack PP for more customers on the same day and will cost extra. In practice, there is little difference from other services so if the spell level is so high that most spell users cannot deliver then the cost goes up for it being a unique service...but that is part of the desired salary of the character.

[Thot]

how much do you charge for spells to your players? healing, identify.....
Im still lost with money level in rmu. Too used to d&d pricess I guess.

You mean as a service? That depends a lot on how levelling is distributed among NPC's in your game world.


In my current campaign, NPC's level about once every 2 years once they have reached level 1 at the age of 15-20, depending on biography. That means most 30-year-old people will be about level 5, and 50-year-olds will be level 15. That means power points for most people are somewhere in the range of 25 (5 ranks power development) to 100 (30 ranks of power development). Let us average that to roughly 60.

Per RAW, you usally regnerate 40% of your PP total per night, that would mean an average caster can regenerate 24 power points a day. A spellcaster who offers their services for hire is a highly skilled expert, so will certaionmly require at kleast 5-10 times the income of a peasant.

Say a peasant is usually able to feed himself and 4 other people with their work, and say that 5 cp per one-week patrions is a good approximation of cost of living (travel rations are usually more expensive than other food, but cost of living is more than just food). So a peasant will earn about 100 copper pieces (or one silver piece per month. Say that including religious holidays and other obligations, people will work for 20 days a month, so a peasan't daily income is about 5 copper pieces. Ten times of that, the average cost of a spellcaster, is 50 copper pieces for the whole day, or rather, for spending 24 power points. That means a power point will cost about two copper pieces.

Unless, of course, magic is much, much rarer. In that case, adjust the above numbers by the factor of a peasant's income you would eem appropriate for spellcasters.

[Thot]

To add to that: Higher level spells will of course be more expensive than lower ones, even per power point. How you scale that is of course dependent on your game world, but I guess this will change the per-pp-cost by no more than 200% for spells up to the level that can be reasonably expected to be available at a given place.

[luzbel]

Thx for all your answers